The antechamber in which we met Jakiri was large and empty...very empty. It made me wonder what Fehreil did with his days in this lonely, haunted castle. Did he simply sit in his chambers, the only decorated part of the building and contemplate revenge upon his disloyal daughter? How could he live such a desolate life?
For the moment, though, I was able to forget such things. Jakiri stared him down fiercely, and neither looked willing to back down. Within the "entourage" was Hiei, looking like a child who had just lost to his worst enemy in a game. Arms crossed over his chest, he glared at Fehreil just as he had glared at me the first time we met. "You took something that wasn't yours," Jakiri warned. She was in the form in which I had seen her in the vision shown to me by Fehreil. This time, she blazed with the power that was often kept dormant. Rage and blind fury brought forth the dragon within her.
"Oh, but she was mine from the beginning," Fehreil whispered. "I don't know if you've heard of the Acra'dor."
"A blood oath," Jakiri said, surprised and beyond belief at some hidden meaning within those words, "the seal of death's promise."
"That would be right, my lovely servant," he replied. "I see my daughter has taught you well. She is bound by one as well...when I am resurrected, her bloodline will be forced into servitude under my throne. Yes, that's right. If her whelp of a lover comes back, he will be my slave for the remnant of his life."
As I watched Hiei's eyes, I saw something snap, and he fingered the hilt of his blade. Something of enormous proportions was raging inside his mind, and I had no idea what it was. "Hiei!" I cried out, running over to support him as he fell forward. "Are...are you alright?"
"Get off, Keiryi," he snarled, throwing me away effortlessly. Jakiri covered her mouth and stared into my eyes. After a little while, she turned back to Fehreil.
"Why?" she asked. "Why make your own daughter swear that kind of oath!"
"Because I could tell she was too much like her mother from the start," he growled, and I watched his ebon eyes, the muscles in his thick, well-built arms tensing and loosening constantly. "I thought that if I had her under such an oath, she wouldn't stray from the path I desired. However, she found the thing that freed her from the oath...love."
"How do you know that Keiryi must serve you then?" Hiei demanded, kneeling on the floor. Blood poured from his arm steadily, spreading small crimson rivulets on the floor.
At this, he barked a triumphant laugh, deeming all that any of us had to say as null and void. "The sins of the parent will be visited on the child," he remarked darkly. "Keiryi is payment for her mother's misguided mistakes. Fortunately, she hasn't whored herself off to any fox yet. That means she'll be pure for the day she gives birth to my heir."
"No," I breathed furiously, leaping to my feet.
In a sudden rush of adrenaline, I dashed forward. My hands wove in complex patterns that I had never seen before, but if I closed my eyes, I could faintly recall them. Thorned vines sprouted up in random places around Fehreil, and when he was enclosed, I thrust my hand forward, sending out a number of seeds that sprouted into knives. They sought him out and soon, one had stabbed him in the neck. After that, the rest followed in suit. Fehreil's bloodied body lay on the ground, and I saw fresh blood streaking the wall.
Somehow, the animal in me smiled at this, satisfied with the bloodshed that had occured there. Before I could do anything, she took control. My hands were stained with blood already, but it didn't stop there. Turning on Jakiri, I felt like I was flying forward as I vaulted into the air. When I landed, though, the sound of Fehreil's voice brought me back, subduing the part of me that wanted to kill them all. "I'm afraid to tell you that that wretch was only a false image," the voice said, coming from everywhere at once. "You will have to search much harder to find me. Much harder."
My mind seemed to shatter right then and there. How could I have listened to him, talked and carried on conversation with him, if his whole existence had been a lie? Was he really still there, or was this a hoax so that someone else could take revenge on Mother? "I'm sorry," I choked out, realizing that I was on the verge of tears. Everybody had been taken from their tasks at hand for the sole purpose of saving me from a mere puppet...a thing created to be a diversion.
"It's alright," Jakiri murmured, jogging over to me and hugging me close. Though this form was a little foreboding- especially after the image of the dragon -, I found her more comforting than Hiei. He just sat on the sidelines, murmuring something about what a useless baka I was.
"I dragged you all out here for nothing," I whispered, cringing at the thought of what could have happened. Black and gold fox ears drooping, my entire body in a sunken mess on the floor, I was the quintessence of self-pity. "I don't even know how to use these powers, and she wanted to kill you all...no matter who it was..."
At the mention of my other half, Jakiri's eyes shot wide open, and she looked at me as though I had just cursed at her. "You mean your demon counterpart?" she stuttered, grasping my shoulders and holding me at arm's length. Why was she putting me under this sort of scrutiny? Couldn't we just go home already and see Mother, Hiro, Mikari, Yukina, Kazuma? I missed them all, and I knew they all missed me. There was nobody else left who cared about me, and Fehreil only wanted to use me so that he could have an heir to his "kingdom".
"Can we please leave?" Hiei complained. "All this place is is a pile of blood-stained rubble."
"There's no need to hang around here," a deep voice said from the background. I saw a tall, narrowly-built man emerge from the shadows where Hiei and a few others had been. His long black hair was tied back into a ponytail, brushing the midpoint of his back. Disturbing violet eyes peered at me, weighing everything I was and could be.
"Who...are you?" I asked quietly, still dazed from my experience with "Fehreil".
"My name is Sakore," he replied. "I was a...friend of your father's."
"Oh."
On top of my distress with Yukina, and my foreboding thoughts about journeying with Hiei, it didn't help that there were more of my father's old friends cropping up day by day. It would have been easier had I been allowed to live a normal teenage life instead of being forced into this warped version of reality. "I'm Keiryi," I said tiredly, allowing Sakore to help me up.
"I know," he replied, giving me a quick pat on the back.
Dressed up in these ceremonial clothes, I realized how much I had grown since my transformation. The flared green pants emphasized how long my legs had gotten, and I could see my upper half had grown quite a bit also. A light, green cloth covered half my torso, leaving most of my stomach bare. A yellow sash was tied around the bottom to keep it on, and also around the waist of my pants.
"Kai...I mean Katie will be very happy to see how much you've grown," Jakiri remarked, and I smiled slightly. It was always nice to feel like I was maturing...settling into my own body.
"So we're going home?" I inquired.
"Of course," Sakore smiled, "but first, we have to figure out how to transform you back. You can't walk about Ningenkai with a tail and ears."
So we all trooped out of the blood-stained castle, not one of us feeling the urge to turn back and go inside. Sakore let my ride on his back piggyback style, and we ran for miles upon miles. Scenery both lush and barren flashed before my eyes. It still fascinated me that a place that was the home of demons could be so lush in parts. The barrenness and the heat were no surprise, but some of the forests were even more beautiful than those in my world of birth...Ningenkai as they called it.
Finally, we stopped in a clearing in the midst of a forest, not three yards away from a considerably wide stream. This was when I had time to talk to Sakore, who I knew would have been the closest to my father of the three, and the most willing to talk. "So," I began casually, "what was he like?"
"Hm?" Turning away from watching the brook, Sakore raised an eyebrow and gave me an inquisitive glance.
"My father?"
"Oh yes," he said, "how silly of me to drift off like that. I suppose we all changed."
"Don't change the topic," I begged, feeling a desire for knowledge of the parent I had never known.
"He started out as a harmless, pickpocket thief," Sakore began, clearing his throat. "Not many people knew his name from the start, but then he began to do the larger raids, the ones that involved more skill...more intelligence. Several demons heard of the blood-thirsty Youko, and most of them wanted him dead. I, however, admired his skill, his daring, and his cleverness. So, I was among the first to offer my help to him.
"Though he often claimed he worked alone, we all found strength in numbers. Many of my new comrades were washed-up thieves just like I was, out of work and out of luck. So, we decided to go for the long-shot, the one nobody liked." Here he sighed, looking up at the sky. For a moment, I thought his violet eyes would never return to meet mine, but soon they did indeed.
"It all began to fall apart when he saw your mother...back when she was still a full-fledged demon. He saw her and became obsessed. Night after night, I would patrol the halls and hear him call her name in loneliness. Never before had he been with a woman. Before, all he cared about was scraping by and taking care of us. Then, he told me to watch her, and make sure that no harm came to her, else he would die. I admit, for a while I wanted her ferocious, wild beauty, the thing that few could touch. Now, though, I know I would have been burned by her fiery turned, crushed by her frozen stare. Only Youko could have her under her own will."
"For seven long years I watched her, knowing that I couldn't have the flower of Makai. Then, she was almost killed by a demon hunter. In a last ditch effort, she took him down, coming gratingly close to taking her own life as well. I don't know if it was my lust or my loyalty, but I healed her and took her back to our mansion, where we lived at the time. You should have seen the exuberant smile Youko had when I gave her to him, unconscious and barely healed. You would have to have seen him to have known how truly radiant he was to see the one he would always love."
We just sat there for a little while, staring into the brook. I tried to imagine that redhead, but I figured he hadn't always looked like that and failed to conjure up an image. "What did he look like back then?" I asked curiously, looking at Sakore with his deep, pensive eyes.
"He had hair silver as the moon, and his eyes were a shade of amber never seen before. Pale as a child born into darkness, he had a silver tail and ears of the same shade. He was known as the greatest of his kind to ever live." I imagined him and my eyes shot wide open. Was he really the man from my dream? Was that fierce beauty truly my passive mother?
The river ran swiftly, sloshing up on the banks and reflecting the silver half-moon. I couldn't imagine someone having hair of that shade...it was just too unreal for me. And his eyes presented the same dilemma. Somehow, I knew I would have to see him in order to visualize what he looked like.
"Now I've told you what you want to know, you'd better get some sleep," Sakore said, giving me a quick pat on the head. "We're going to be getting an early start tomorrow."
As soon as he left me there, I curled up on the riverbank and slept soundly...more so than ever before. And while I slept, I dreamed...
Everything around me was black and cold. There were no people, no Sakore or Jakiri or Hiei. Mother wasn't there either, and I was hoping I was just in a haze, waiting for my senses to return to me after a long, unfinished sleep. Instead, I peered around at the surroundings. Every few feet, there was a slender sliver of light, white as the summer sun's rays. "Mother?" I called through. "Anyone?" And it opened up, revealing a broad landscape that was completely unfamiliar.
"Welcome, Ashlahnai," a light voice sounded. "I see you have finally found your way home...to the Plane of Luminescence." Plane of Lumi-whatsit? I sighed and looked at the figure before me. She looked much like Angela, except her wings were brown and she had terrifying golden eyes like those of a hawk. She had the same shoulder-length brown hair, the same slight build.
"Who are you?" I asked. "Who is Ashlah'nai?"
"I am Imrennna," the winged girl responded, giving me a sweeping bow that included her wings. "For years I have guarded his cell, making certain that he doesn't get loose. Else, Fehreil's plan will fail. Soon you will be his queen, though, so it is of no consequence if I tell you."
I stood there, agape, and waited for her to say something else. However, nothing came, and I felt increasingly awkward just standing there. "Who is he?" I asked, looking her in the eyes. Almost my age, she was a bit shorter than me.
"That is for him to tell you," Imrenna smiled. Her smile was pretty, but then I found it incredibly chillling at the same time. "You may meet him soon enough."
"When is soon enough?" I asked, feeling like quite the contrarian.
"Now," she replied curtly, and I followed her down the hall that had just appeared.
That hall seemed to lead us on for hours upon hours as we trudged along it, taking in what little scenery there was. A few doors were scattered here and there, but otherwise it was an incredibly dull, mahogany corridor. "Here we are," Imrenna muttered, drawing a key from within her gown. "Now, the one rule is that you may never open the door. Call for me when you are done speaking with him." And then the door swung open slightly, letting a small sliver of light shine into the otherwise dark room.
"Hello?" I called, stepping through the door. Once I was inside the room, it swung shut with a loud thud. "Who are you?"
"I'm someone very close to you," a cool, collected voice replied. "Before you were born, I knew your mother."
"But who are you?" I demanded, frustrated at his foggy answers.
"I am who I am," he replied, and I strained to see him. My efforts were useless though. All I could see was something moving in the darkness. "Forget the question of my name, my heritage. It will come soon enough."
"Fair enough," I conceded, sighing. At such a tender age, everyone wanted me to grow up and act like I had, but the stress was slowly collapsing in on me.
"Imrenna sent you here, didn't she?" he asked, a hint of concern showing through in his otherwise mellow voice. "She wants to drive you mad, prevent you from freeing me. Don't listen to what she says."
"Why not?" I demanded. "At least she's willing to be up front and honest, unlike everyone else! Even my own mother didn't tell me the entire truth! I'm only thirteen, and I don't want to be an adult yet! I want to grow up a normal child-!" A strong hand placed itself across my mouth, cutting off my tirade.
"But you're not," he said. "You have to realize that. Accept it and carry on."
"Why?" I asked, looking down at my hands. "Why does it have to happen to me?" Remembering that someone else was there, I held back my tears and felt a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders. "Why comfort me?" I asked. "You-you don't even know me."
"Oh," he said in my ear, "but I do...more so than you could possibly know yourself." And I slowly phased out of that world, leaving this strange creature that was willing to comfort a wretched soul like myself...
"Keiryi?" Jakiri. And Sakore. When my eyes opened, I saw them both huddled over me. Lying on the riverbank, I gazed up at them in shock. What had just happened to me, that I was in such a haze?
"Are you alright?" Sakore asked, feeling my forehead for a temperature. "You...look rather pale." Jakiri just stared at me with that worried look of hers.
"I'm okay," I said, pushing myself up to a sitting position. "I...just had a bad dream."
A/N: Mwahahahahaha! I make you wait very long, and this is all you get until next chapter. Who is this mysterious creature? What is to become of Keiryi? Will they ever find the real Fehreil? Find out in the next thrilling episode of the Midnight Rose...TWO
Love to Yuki Amida,
Miari